Since January, the new presidential administration and its appointees have been dramatically reshaping longstanding immigration policy in the United States. The initial wave of executive orders pertaining to immigration have now taken root in policy and enforcement decisions — even as their legality continues to be challenged in the courts.
Though the administration asserts it is targeting only illegal immigration, its actions suggest a contempt for all immigration, and for immigrants as a group. The attempts to suspend the asylum and humanitarian parole programs, actions taken to eliminate birthright citizenship, and most recently the cancelation of Temporary Protected Status for select groups, will disproportionately affect refugee and immigrant families who have sought a legal path to the United States.
Blaming the problems of the country on immigrants is, unfortunately, not new in our history. These kinds of nativist sentiments bubbled up even in Salem in the early 1900s, aimed at recent arrivals from Poland, Russia, and Ukraine — many of whom were fleeing war, political instability, and religious persecution. The House of the Seven Gables sat squarely in the center of an immigrant neighborhood when our founder, Caroline Emmerton, purchased it.
Emmerton pushed back against the notion that immigrants were the cause of Salem’s problems. She correctly saw them as one of our most vulnerable populations — exploited for cheap labor, subject to political whims, and vilified by people who never took the time to know them. Emmerton envisioned The House of the Seven Gables as a museum, yes, but also as a Settlement House that could provide education, community, and material support to new immigrants. She saw a certain symmetry in basing this work out of a building constructed in 1668 — “the foundations of which,” she noted, “were laid by the first immigrants who came here long ago, strangers in a strange land.”
Most know our organization today as a historic site, but we have continued Caroline Emmerton’s work since 1908. We currently offer free English language learning and U.S. citizenship preparation classes for residents of the North Shore, enrolling over 500 students every year — with more than 50 becoming new U.S. citizens. The negative picture that the administration paints of immigration and immigrants bears no resemblance to our experience. Our students are driven, hard-working, and eager to give back to their communities. They are, as Emmerton was fond of saying, our neighbors.
Anti-immigration voices are always quick to argue that “America is a nation of laws.” We are, but let us remember that we are also a nation of traditions and values. Taking care of our neighbors — treating them with dignity, as equals — is paramount among those American values. It is a core part of our identity as a country, and one we would be wise to cherish.
Dakota Russell is the executive director of the House of Seven Gables Settlement Association. Elizabeth McKeigue is the president and chair of the Board of Trustees for the Association as well Dean of the Frederick E. Berry Library at Salem State University. The opinions expressed in this article are her own and do not represent those of the university.